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It really is cut-down, too. Here's the official list of all the Ultra features which Essentials leaves out:

Face tagging

Photo stacking

Editable Exif - Capture date

Spot Removal

Brush

Selection Brush

Gradient Mask

Radial Filter

HDR effects

RGB Curves

Split Toning

Levels

Auto Denoise

Lens correction

Edit Tools

Layer Editing

Fortunately there's still quite a lot left: a solid organiser, slideshow creator, a capable viewer and a useful set of general image adjustment tools (even if you can't remove background objects, there are all the usual adjustments for colour, brightness, contrast and more).

Verdict

CyberLink PhotoDirector Essentials leaves out all the most interesting and powerful editing tools, but if you just need an organiser with basic image adjustments then it works well enough.